The World Bank has revealed that on a global scale, 733 million people do not have access to electricity, including more than 570 million in sub-Saharan Africa, despite the fact that over the past ten years, the world has achieved a remarkable leap in access to electricity. At the current rate, 670 million people will still be without electricity by 2030, 10 million more than the estimate established in 2021.
A World Bank document made public on July 1, 2022 indicates that the share of the world’s population with access to electricity has increased from “83% in 2010 to 91% in 2020, an increase of 1.3 billion people in the world “. However, the number of people without access to electricity around the world has decreased. It goes “from 1.2 billion in 2010 to 733 million in 2020”. However, the pace of progress in electrification has slowed in recent years, no doubt because it is increasingly “difficult to reach unserved, more remote and poorer populations, but also because of the unprecedented repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic”, argue experts from one of the Bretton Woods institutions. To achieve the objective set for 2030, “we must make 100 million new connections per year”, argue electricity specialists. At the current rate of progress, the global electrification rate will be only 92% in 2030.
Between 2010 and 2020, electrification progressed steadily in all regions of the world, although with great disparities. Thus, if sub-Saharan Africa records an improvement in terms of access to electricity – (going from 46% in 2018 to 48% in 2020) -, its position is deteriorating in terms of access deficit. globally (71% in 2018 but 77% in 2020). Most other regions, including Central and South Asia, have seen their share of access deficits decline. Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for more than three-quarters of the population (568 million people) still without access in 2020.
Senegal, an “upturn” in the gloom
Relative to the West African region, Senegal is ranked among the countries with the highest electricity access rate in West Africa, with 76% at the end of 2019. However, there are large disparities between urban and rural populations with access to electricity, with 94% and 53.9% respectively. These results are the result of a well-developed energy policy through the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE) which has set itself the objective of “providing all citizens with access to reliable electricity, in quantity, quality and at a affordable price by 2025”.
To carry out this roadmap, the government has mobilized around partners such as the World Bank, nearly 280 million dollars; BOAD around 75 million euros; the European Union 20 million euros; the French Development Agency, 30 million euros, as well as the African Development Bank and KfW.
Non-polluting means of cooking
The source reports that the share of the world’s population with access to clean cooking fuels and technologies increased “to 69% in 2020”, an increase of 3 percentage points from the previous year.
However, given population growth, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the total number of people without access to clean cooking means has remained relatively stable for decades. Thus, in ten years (2000 and 2010), it stood at nearly three billion, or a third of the world’s population. It has fallen to around 2.4 billion in 2020. It is mainly in the large, heavily populated Asian countries that progress has been made. By contrast, the access deficit has nearly doubled in sub-Saharan Africa since 1990, reaching a total of around “923 million people in 2020,” electricity experts note…
Renewable energies
Ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy implies an accelerated deployment of renewable energy sources for electricity, heating and transport. Although there is no quantitative target for SDG 7.2, the custodians agree that the share of renewables in total final energy consumption (TFEC) must increase significantly, even if renewable energy consumption Renewable energy has continued to grow during the pandemic, despite disruptions to economic activity and supply chains.
Energy efficiency
Sustainable Development Goal 7.3 aims to double the global rate of annual improvement in primary energy intensity, the amount of energy used per unit of wealth created, to 2.6% by 2010-30 compared to 1990-2010. From 2010 to 2019, global annual improvements in energy intensity have averaged around 1.9%, well below the target. The average annual rate of improvement would therefore have to be 3.2% to catch up. It should even be higher, more than 4% for the rest of this decade if the world is to achieve the goal of net zero emissions from the energy sector by 2050, as projected in the scenario. of the IEA “Net Zero Emissions by 2050”.
Renewable energies
According to the report, the flow of international public finance to developing countries to promote clean energy has decreased for the second consecutive year. They stood at $10.9 billion in 2019, despite the immense needs for sustainable development in most countries and the growing urgency of climate change. This amount has decreased by almost 24% compared to the previous year, a decrease which might be accentuated by the pandemic in 2020. In general, the level of financing remains below what is necessary to achieve SDG 7 , especially in the most vulnerable and least developed countries.
Moctar FICOU / VivAfrik
With (JP Malou sudquotidien.sn)
